The European Commission said it opened two antitrust investigations into the CDS market. It will check whether 16 bank dealers colluded by giving market information to Markit, a financial information provider, the commission said today in a statement.

The regulator also will examine whether nine of those dealers struck deals with ICE Clear Europe, a clearing house for derivatives, that block other clearing houses from entering the market and give CDS players âno real choice where to clear their transactions,â the commission said.